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Who Was . . . ? Series
Who Was Rosa Parks?
In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama. This seemingly small act triggered civil rights protests across America and earned Rosa Parks the title "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement." This biography has black-and-white illustrations throughout.
112 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2010
326 people are currently reading
1348 people want to read
About the author
Yona Zeldis McDonough
53 books234 followersI live in Park Slope, Brooklyn and many of my novels take place here. But my new novel takes place in New Hampshire, and I have woven into it a historical component: the tragic story of Ruth Blay, who in 1768 was the last woman hanged in the state. When I read about Ruth, I was fascinated and horrified in equal measure, and I knew I had to write about her.
I was educated at Vassar College and Columbia University, where I studied art history. But I started writing fiction in my 20's and never looked back. I am the author of seven novels, 27 books for children and am the editor of two essay collections. I'm also the fiction editor of Lilith Magazine . Please visit my website, http://www.yonazeldismcdonough.com or find me on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/yzmcdonough; I love to connect with readers everywhere.
I was educated at Vassar College and Columbia University, where I studied art history. But I started writing fiction in my 20's and never looked back. I am the author of seven novels, 27 books for children and am the editor of two essay collections. I'm also the fiction editor of Lilith Magazine . Please visit my website, http://www.yonazeldismcdonough.com or find me on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/yzmcdonough; I love to connect with readers everywhere.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 296 reviews
February 28, 2017
I love reading the "Who Was..." and "What Was…" books, even as an adult. This story was really interesting and I learned about some people, who I had heard of before, but did not know their complete connection to the civil rights movement.
I was very glad this book talked about Claudette Colvin. She was the first person to not give up her seat on a bus and was beaten and sent to jail for it. Many books about the civil rights period do not talk about her, so it was refreshing to read this one. The reason that she was not the "face" of the civil rights bus movement was because she was a 15-old-girl that was pregnant. Nixon, who was helping with the civil rights movement, thought Rosa would be a much better fit. (Learning about Nixon was new information for me). Nixon went around to all the black churches and encouraged them to tell their members to not ride the busses anymore until the movement is over.
Another person I learned about was Eleanor Roosevelt. I had no idea that she was involved in the civil rights movement.
And lastly, I have read a ton of books on Rosa Parks (most picture books, because I'm a teacher) so I didn't learn a lot of new information on her. However, I did find it fascinating that she didn't 100% agree with the movement that Martin Luther King Jr. was doing. He believed in absolutely no violence, but Rosa herself believed that black people should be able to stand up for themselves. She agreed with Malcolm X's way (some violence is necessary) over King's. I also learned that after the civil rights bus movement she moved to Detroit, because no one would hire her and her husband. She stayed in Detroit till she passed away and was buried there.
I was very glad this book talked about Claudette Colvin. She was the first person to not give up her seat on a bus and was beaten and sent to jail for it. Many books about the civil rights period do not talk about her, so it was refreshing to read this one. The reason that she was not the "face" of the civil rights bus movement was because she was a 15-old-girl that was pregnant. Nixon, who was helping with the civil rights movement, thought Rosa would be a much better fit. (Learning about Nixon was new information for me). Nixon went around to all the black churches and encouraged them to tell their members to not ride the busses anymore until the movement is over.
Another person I learned about was Eleanor Roosevelt. I had no idea that she was involved in the civil rights movement.
And lastly, I have read a ton of books on Rosa Parks (most picture books, because I'm a teacher) so I didn't learn a lot of new information on her. However, I did find it fascinating that she didn't 100% agree with the movement that Martin Luther King Jr. was doing. He believed in absolutely no violence, but Rosa herself believed that black people should be able to stand up for themselves. She agreed with Malcolm X's way (some violence is necessary) over King's. I also learned that after the civil rights bus movement she moved to Detroit, because no one would hire her and her husband. She stayed in Detroit till she passed away and was buried there.
December 1, 2019
An outstanding and brave woman. This children's book is part of the project to learning English by myself.
September 11, 2021
Well done!
Who was Rosa Parks?
This is a terrific book with just about everything you would want to know about this wonderful driven woman! I must say I learned a thing or two! It takes you back to her childhood on up. Excellent!
Who was Rosa Parks?
This is a terrific book with just about everything you would want to know about this wonderful driven woman! I must say I learned a thing or two! It takes you back to her childhood on up. Excellent!
January 5, 2025
The first time I ever heard of Rosa Parks was (don't laugh!) in the 2018 Doctor Who episode Rosa. This excellent book on her life, although written for children, is highly informative. There are also plenty of good illustrations. A great book about a great woman.
October 27, 2015
The story is about Rosa Parks who was a big spark in the multi-race revolution. She was a courages person who took her freedom and brought it out! Her disobeying these unfair laws was just outstanding! I say that I recommend this to people who love freedom.
December 9, 2015
Who was Rosa Parks? was an incredible biography on the life of the lady who started a revolution by just sitting on bus! I would recommend this book to anyone who loves to read quick, interesting books. If this one isn't for you, try another Who Was?/Is book.
November 15, 2021
易しい英語で薄い本だけど、人種差別に関する重要事項や公民権運動の中心人物が網羅されているので入門編にとてもよい。ローザ•パークスがどんな人なのか具体的には何も知らなかったので勉強になった。
May 17, 2023
Who Was Rosa Parks? [2010] - ★★★★1/2
"...a bus seat may seem like a little thing. But it wasn't. It represented something big" [McDonough, 2010: 47].
This series of books illustrates the lives of notable people for children. Rosa Parks was an American activist known for her involvement in the civil rights movement, in particular, in the Montgomery bus boycott. She is famous for saying “no” to the demand to give her seat to a white passenger on a bus in 1955. Her quiet courage which led to big changes won the world’s admiration. This children’s book with illustrations starts by talking about Rosa as a small child living in segregated Alabama and then moves on to talk about Rosa changing various schools and finally becoming a secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), as well as “one of few women in the civil rights movement” [2010: 36] at that time. I liked the fact that the book talked about Claudette Colvin too, a fifteen year old girl, who refused to give her seat to one white passenger months before Parks’s refusal, but she never made any headlines. The book explains such concepts as Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow Laws to older children, and emphasises the extent of the control exercised over black people’s lives at that time, as well as the inherent injustice implicit in the rules governing bus conduct and seating arrangements in the 1950s Alabama.
Unfortunately, however, the book is also presented a bit chaotically, opening with the introductory section on who Rosa Parks was and not telling about her achievements at all. There are also some strange assumptions how Parks must have felt at certain moments, and the book talks about the Brown vs Board of Education decision of 1954 when Parks was only about 12 and living in the year 1925. Overall, though, Who Was Rosa Parks is a good book. It conveys clearly the message that a big change always begins with one small step and no one is too small or insignificant to make a difference.
"...a bus seat may seem like a little thing. But it wasn't. It represented something big" [McDonough, 2010: 47].
This series of books illustrates the lives of notable people for children. Rosa Parks was an American activist known for her involvement in the civil rights movement, in particular, in the Montgomery bus boycott. She is famous for saying “no” to the demand to give her seat to a white passenger on a bus in 1955. Her quiet courage which led to big changes won the world’s admiration. This children’s book with illustrations starts by talking about Rosa as a small child living in segregated Alabama and then moves on to talk about Rosa changing various schools and finally becoming a secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), as well as “one of few women in the civil rights movement” [2010: 36] at that time. I liked the fact that the book talked about Claudette Colvin too, a fifteen year old girl, who refused to give her seat to one white passenger months before Parks’s refusal, but she never made any headlines. The book explains such concepts as Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow Laws to older children, and emphasises the extent of the control exercised over black people’s lives at that time, as well as the inherent injustice implicit in the rules governing bus conduct and seating arrangements in the 1950s Alabama.
Unfortunately, however, the book is also presented a bit chaotically, opening with the introductory section on who Rosa Parks was and not telling about her achievements at all. There are also some strange assumptions how Parks must have felt at certain moments, and the book talks about the Brown vs Board of Education decision of 1954 when Parks was only about 12 and living in the year 1925. Overall, though, Who Was Rosa Parks is a good book. It conveys clearly the message that a big change always begins with one small step and no one is too small or insignificant to make a difference.
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March 15, 2025
I don't think not getting up for a white man in a bus merits this amount of popularity and acclaim, despite the times or the prejudices.
April 15, 2016
I like this book because it taught me how it was when Rosa Parks was alive about the buses and more.
December 1, 2022
Rosa Parks was your average African-American Woman until one Day She Refused to Give up her Seat for a White Man, Sparking a Revolution that is Still Ongoing Even Today!
May 3, 2017
I did not know a thing about Rosa Parks, I learned that she did not give up her seat and she said not to a white person so she had to got to jail but then other people helped her out of jail. I think of Rosa of Martin Luther King Jr because they wanted the same thing FREEDOM and they worked to getter and not blacks and whites can do the same things for an example ( E.X) back then black and white students can not go to the same school but not all because of Martin Luther King Jr blacks and whites get along and they can go to the same school and do the same stuff.
August 12, 2020
Very interesting. A little scary though.
June 21, 2020
I liked the book because Rosa Parks helped end segregation.
Ppp
Ppp
May 9, 2011
Rosa Parks grew up in a time when black and white children (and adults) were not treated the same. Lily and Wade are inspired by her lifelong courage to work for more fairness in the world. This book taught us about a lot of new big words like segregation, equality, racism, prejudice, civil rights, boycott, protest, fairness, unconstitutional, and nonviolence.
Rosa understood how important it was for everyone to vote, but before 1965 there were laws that made it very difficult for most black people to do so. She worked very hard to change this. We learned about the NAACP and about important civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and W.E.B. Dubois. We think it was amazing that more than 200,000 people attended the Civil Rights March and I Have a Dream Speech in Washington DC in 1963.
Rosa is most famous for refusing to give up her seat on a bus, an event that put her in jail. She is a heroine for being so courageous during this time, and especially during the Montgomery Bus Boycott that followed.
Rosa received many awards and medals from all over the world for her work. Lily feels a special connection because she was born the same year that Rosa died.
Rosa understood how important it was for everyone to vote, but before 1965 there were laws that made it very difficult for most black people to do so. She worked very hard to change this. We learned about the NAACP and about important civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and W.E.B. Dubois. We think it was amazing that more than 200,000 people attended the Civil Rights March and I Have a Dream Speech in Washington DC in 1963.
Rosa is most famous for refusing to give up her seat on a bus, an event that put her in jail. She is a heroine for being so courageous during this time, and especially during the Montgomery Bus Boycott that followed.
Rosa received many awards and medals from all over the world for her work. Lily feels a special connection because she was born the same year that Rosa died.
March 20, 2018
Rosa Parks said, "I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free... so other people would be also free" (98). I love this quote because she is basically saying that if she is concerned about being free then other people will have the courge to be concerned about being free. This is a quote everyone can learn from. Who Was Rosa Parks? by Yona Zeldis McDonough is about the life of Rosa Parks and all the examples she set, and about what she went through in her lifetime. Initially,
Rosa Louise McCauley is born in Tuskegee, Alabama. Next, she gets married to Raymond Parks. Finally, on October 24, 2005 at the age of 92. Overall, the main message is that whatever the color of your skin, the shape of your body, how many teeth you have you matter and that is all that matters! I would absolutly recommend this book because I think we should all learn about Rosa Parks life and the challenges that she faced. This book shows us that everyone can make a difference!
Rosa Louise McCauley is born in Tuskegee, Alabama. Next, she gets married to Raymond Parks. Finally, on October 24, 2005 at the age of 92. Overall, the main message is that whatever the color of your skin, the shape of your body, how many teeth you have you matter and that is all that matters! I would absolutly recommend this book because I think we should all learn about Rosa Parks life and the challenges that she faced. This book shows us that everyone can make a difference!
November 10, 2014
Everyone knows who RosaParks is because most people learn about her in elementary school, well how do the kids of today's generation learn? The same way as everyone else, through books! Who Was Rosa Parks by Yona Zeldis McDonough is kid-friendly book that teaches kids who exactly Rosa Parks was. The book starts with Rosa's childhood and goes from there, emphasizing her legendary bus incident that sparked a revolution. This book will teach kids to always stand up for what you believe in even if someone else doesn't agree.
The illustrations in this book are very unique. All illustrious besides the cover are in black and white and look hand drawn in pencil. This helps aide a child's mind to realize that this happened a long time ago. The easy to read, large lettered text makes reading easy for kids. This book is for medium to high level readers.
The illustrations in this book are very unique. All illustrious besides the cover are in black and white and look hand drawn in pencil. This helps aide a child's mind to realize that this happened a long time ago. The easy to read, large lettered text makes reading easy for kids. This book is for medium to high level readers.
September 30, 2018
Great series!
Everyone knows the famous bus scene of Rosa Parks life, but I enjoyed reading the other bits - how she pushed a boy who tried to run her off the sidewalk, how she took care of her mother, how she donated time to the NAACP, how she worked for a US senator - so many interesting tidbits.
The only thing that dinged a star was because there were WAY too many aside pages. It’s nice to have a few, but there were so many in this book it interrupted the flow.
Everyone knows the famous bus scene of Rosa Parks life, but I enjoyed reading the other bits - how she pushed a boy who tried to run her off the sidewalk, how she took care of her mother, how she donated time to the NAACP, how she worked for a US senator - so many interesting tidbits.
The only thing that dinged a star was because there were WAY too many aside pages. It’s nice to have a few, but there were so many in this book it interrupted the flow.
March 16, 2019
This book is upsetting because it talks about the separation of blacks and whites. So in this book Rosa didn't get a free ride to change history she had to work for it and prove that it took heart and strength to get where she is now. So Rosa always was upset about how they had to be doing different thing then whites like separated bathrooms, restaurants and even water fountains. And this made Rosa upset so for years and years she wanted to change the would so whites and black can have equal rights. So Rosa one day went onto the bus as usual and sat down but not in the back but in the very front. And the driver started to yell at her and to get up but Rosa refused to do so. So the bus driver called the police and Rosa go arrested. But all that mattered was that she was proving a point that blacks matter as much as whites do. So if you like books that are upsetting then this book would be just right for you.
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April 26, 2021BIOGRAPHY
Synopsis of text: This text is a biography of the life of Rosa Parks and the impact that she had on the Civil Rights Movement. The reader will learn the story of when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white person in Montgomery, Alabama. This act sparked the Civil Rights Movement and caused her to be titled the "mother or First Lady of the Civil Rights Movement."
Use in classroom:
-I could use this text in my classroom to introduce a social studies unit on the Civil Rights Movement. I could implement this book into our read aloud time so the students could get background on Rosa Parks during a read aloud block.
-I could also use this text in my classroom as a resource to provide for a historical figure project. Rosa Parks could be an option to learn about and present on for a famous historical figure. This text could be a provided source for the project.
Why wow book: This text was a wow book because it was a great read and also a great way to learn about who Rosa Parks was and her legacy in the Civil Rights Movement.
Synopsis of text: This text is a biography of the life of Rosa Parks and the impact that she had on the Civil Rights Movement. The reader will learn the story of when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white person in Montgomery, Alabama. This act sparked the Civil Rights Movement and caused her to be titled the "mother or First Lady of the Civil Rights Movement."
Use in classroom:
-I could use this text in my classroom to introduce a social studies unit on the Civil Rights Movement. I could implement this book into our read aloud time so the students could get background on Rosa Parks during a read aloud block.
-I could also use this text in my classroom as a resource to provide for a historical figure project. Rosa Parks could be an option to learn about and present on for a famous historical figure. This text could be a provided source for the project.
Why wow book: This text was a wow book because it was a great read and also a great way to learn about who Rosa Parks was and her legacy in the Civil Rights Movement.
March 4, 2025
5 star audiobook book geared towards elementary students…but this 30 year old learned plenty too! I loved hearing about Rosa Parks’ husband (Raymond) and the work she continued to do after the peak of the Civil Rights Movement. I didn’t know about her story of becoming a voter and all the unjust roadblocks in the way to cast her ballot. Rosa Park’s example and consistent advocating for Black rights and women’s rights up until her passing in 2005 make her a true and lasting hero.
I read this with my kids and two of their friends today (kindergarten through 2nd grade) and we didn’t put it down till the end! It captured them. We went on a civil rights scavenger hunt afterwards…they were so excited when we found ourselves riding (on accident!) down Rosa Parks Blvd.
I read this with my kids and two of their friends today (kindergarten through 2nd grade) and we didn’t put it down till the end! It captured them. We went on a civil rights scavenger hunt afterwards…they were so excited when we found ourselves riding (on accident!) down Rosa Parks Blvd.
October 24, 2019
Rosa Parks is great historical figure. This book is about her life and all the choices she made to aide in ending segregation. On december 1, 1995, after working all day she took her normal bus route home. However, this time, Rosa decided to not give up her seat to the white people once the bus got crowded, This created quite a scene, but Rosa was determined to bring inequality to light. Rosa and her active part in the civil rightsmovement will never be forgotten.
This book was a really great book. I got to learn more about Rosa Parks, and that was my goal. I would recomend this book to anyone that is intrested in learning more about Rosa Parks, or to anyone who like history.
This book was a really great book. I got to learn more about Rosa Parks, and that was my goal. I would recomend this book to anyone that is intrested in learning more about Rosa Parks, or to anyone who like history.
February 14, 2020
Rosa Parks was so much more than the lady known for being arrested for not giving up her bus seat precipitating the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. She had come through the segregated school system and, after graduating high school, she became involved in civil rights issues. In Who Was Rosa Parks? by Yona Zeldis McDonough the author presents more about Rosa Parks than the bus episode. In fact, there was another person who did this before Rosa Parks but the people who wanted to boycott the city bus system decided not to use her as the face of the protest because she was only 15 and pregnant. Many other facts and interesting back stories are also included in the book.
April 13, 2021
This entry into the popular Who Was? series provides a quick, but comprehensive look at Rosa Parks' life and her contributions to civil rights that extend beyond the famous bus incident. There's also a lot of other information about the time period, segregation, and other civil rights leaders, so it gives a good overall picture for readers just learning about all this. The book also does a good job of demonstrating how one person, through brave, yet simple actions and quiet strength can change the world.
December 27, 2024
This was fairly good, perhaps more of a 3.5 star title. It is a well done biography of Rosa Parks. I liked the nod towards Claudette Colvin as well as other well known names peripheral to Rosa’s story. I also liked the comment that she didn’t entirely agree with Martin Luther King’s philosophy of complete nonviolence. Nuance is important and I’m glad to see more appearing in Juvenile literature.
Recommended.
Recommended.
January 29, 2024
A smart and wonderful lady. A fascinating life. Worked hard for the civil rights movement. And for the rights of women to be treated equally. And the right for women to vote, and for blacks to sit wherever they chose, among many other things. She died in October of 2005 at age 92. Her husband died in 1977 of cancer as did her brother. She was an author also. CathyR
November 23, 2017
Why can't I just read it now I have to write a book report in 1day !😤
April 13, 2019
Very informative.
February 14, 2020
Very informative, wished it was in color only problem
September 9, 2020
I couldn’t get my kids interested in the book. There’s good content in it for sure but they just couldn’t get into it like the MLK book. I’m sure that’s more to do with them than the book. Rosa Park was amazing.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 296 reviews